At GDC 2014, we scoped out a very exciting Lego game coming from Funcom. Unlike most of the mobile Lego games which latch onto a franchise like Batman or Harry Potter, this new multiplayer action game will cover the whole swath of classic Lego settings, like Pirate World, Medieval World, Space World, and lots more.

Here’s the gist: you control and switch between three Lego minifigures, each with their own unique abilities. Like most MMOs, you team up with friends, embark on quests, amass loot, and progress each character through ten levels of experience. There are a few twists that makes Lego Minifigures Online particularly interesting. For one, this is going to be fully cross-platform between PC, Android, and iOS when it launches this fall. The demo we had at GDC was primarily on PC, though we did get to sneak a peek at early versions for mobile. The other cool thing is the tie-in with physical Lego figures. You can already go out and buy specialty minifigs in individually wrapped bags, but starting with a certain series, they’ll start printing codes on the inside packaging which you can punch into the game to gain access to that character. As much as I'd like to mix and match parts in the game, the Funcom guys opted instead to have highly specialized and unique animations and attacks for every character, which isn't very practical with modular gear.

As a kid I played a ton of Lego, so this is pretty exciting. It looks like Lego Minifigures Online has enough depth to keep adult players interested; defender, striker, and builder roles spread across over 100 characters is a lot to explore. The game is going to be free-to-play, so players can spend in-game stars to unlock new characters, which are acquired through gameplay or in-app purchase. Hit up the Lego Minifigures Online site for more information and update notifications. Any takers?

My boy (5yrs) is a Lego fanatic. We're currently trying to get 100% in the Lego Movie game, and you're not kidding about "Everything Is Awesome!" being stuck in your head..
At any given moment I've been known to shout it out, at home, in public, even in bed. . I

Great! Another game where you have to spend loads of money to unlock characters than should be unlockable just by playing and progressing through the game.

It's Freemium in a very poor disguise. Fine if you want to allow people to use stuff they've bought in the real world in the game. But how about a choice for people that don't want to end up investing hundreds of pounds in nasty bits of plastic to progress their game?

The only choice presently is not getting conned into the appalling business model in the first place.

The finer details of the pricing scheme haven't been fully laid out, but my impression was that you could unlock every character if you played enough. The character unlocks aren't exclusively with real-world goods, it's in addition to virtual purchases. At worst, Funcom's playing on the natural impatience of kids to have their favorite character right away, but that doesn't sound so awful to me.

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